What Would You Do If You Knew You Couldn't Fail?

*So, I am still reading the CE Version of the Course which Is maddening insomuch as the only way to (sort of)“quote”(by which I mean point to the content of) it is to refer to an online version of the Urtext. We (by which I mean I) are/am still in chapter one. The CE version, for the record, uses the text which has been crossed out in the quoted blocks below. Supposedly, in later versions, Jesus was in charge of editing and as a person who writes with some regularity, I can appreciate that editing is sometimes necessary to clarify the meaning. Or at least that is my human experience. Sometimes, I go back and read something I can written and HAVE to edit to begin to make sense of things. I suppose the question is which “channel” was the clearest? When she (Helen Schucman) was originally hearing the Voice or when she was editing? Paragraph four which later became five, as it was originally written said, “Miracles are habits and should be involuntary. Otherwise they may become undemocratic. Selective miracles are dangerous, and may destroy the talent.”*

The undemocratic use of miracles, according to Perry (the editor of this new version) means “they would not be expressing social equality.” So they shouldn’t be consciously selected. My guess is that to “destroy the talent” means that rather than being our true Selves (as God created us – the Holy Son of God Himself), we are allowing ego’s ideas to encroach.

It occurs to me that so often this is an example of us (me) listening to our (my) own ideas rather than taking guidance from God and it gets in the way of things (destroys the talent). In our Tuesday night group we were discussing how sometimes we have these moments of brilliant connectedness, which life is blissful and the world seems right, and the first thing most of us try to do is cling to it. We want to take the beauty and bottle it so we can have it whenever we want.

We want to make the present moment our bitch and, of course, it doesn’t work that way.

All miracles mean Life, and God is the giver of the Life. He will direct you VERY specifically.
(Plan ahead is good advice in this world, where you should and must control & direct where you have accepted responsibility. But the Universal Plan is in more appropriate hands. You will know all you need to know. Make NO attempts to plan ahead in this respect.)

5.Miracles are habits, and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control.
(Otherwise they may become undemocratic. Consciously selected miracles are usually dangerous misguided and may destroy this will make the talent useless.)

Miracles are natural. When they do NOT occur something has gone wrong.

Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.

Miracles are a form of healing. They supply a lack, and are performed by those who have more for those who have less.

Miracles are a kind of exchange. Like all expressions of love, which are ALWAYS miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws.

A miracle is a reversal of the physical order because it brings more love to the giver and the receiver.

(A miracle is misunderstood when it is regarded as a spectacle.)11. The use of miracles as a spectacle to induce belief is wrong. They are really used for and by believers.
(HS has some fear about 11) and doubt about 9) and 10). Probably doubt by fear of 11).

(When you say “If you want me to I will” please add “and if you DON’T want me to I won’t.” This is the RIGHT use of inhibition. There has to be SOME control over learning for channelizing purposes. Remember retroactive inhibition which should be easy enough for you.Sometimes the new learning is the more important, and has to inhibit the old. It’s a form of correction.)

Prayer is the medium of miracles. Prayer is the natural communication of the Created with the Creator. Through prayer, love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.

Miracles are thought-creations. Thought can create lower-order or higher-order realities. This is the basic distinction between intellectualization and thinking. One creates the physical, and the other the spiritual, and we believe in what we create.

A miracle is a beginning and an end(ing). It thus abolishes time. It is always an affirmation of re-birth, which seems to go back, but really goes forward. It undoes the past in the present, and thus releases the future.

“The undemocratic use of miracles” is me trying to manipulate the situation – a sure sign that ego has entered the equation. I’m trying to kick God out of the driver’s seat. I am trying to control.

Control is not a God quality. Often, I run through the list of qualities of God and this helps me to recognize whether or not I have inadvertently been dragged off-track without realizing it. Am I fearful? Not a God quality. Am I mistrusting? Also not God’s thing. Do I assess the situation at hand based on less than stellar opinions about my brothers? Judgment is not a God gig.

And control isn’t either. How would perfection need to be controlled? So today, I will be conscious of noticing when the undemocratic use of miracles is trying to horn its way in. I will notice when I am clinging to my desire to control. Then I will step back and allow what is to be as it is, without judgment or interference.

God doesn’t use miracles undemocratically. (“For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”)

And I’m good with that.

Namaste, my friends, Namaste.

*A Course in Miracles: Complete and Annotated Edition Hardcover – January 20, 2017 by Helen Schucman (Author), Robert Perry (Editor), Greg Mackie (Editor) (Though most of us would say Helen was the scribe and Jesus the author)